11-05-2025
Sharing changing room with trans colleague brought back child abuse memories, nurse says
Following the encounter, Ms Danson was forced to take time off work and when she did return, she began getting changed in a lavatory.
Her trauma was compounded when she was admitted to Darlington Memorial Hospital for a minor gynaecological operation, only to discover Rose was scheduled to be involved.
She said: 'It is difficult to put into words how I felt. I immediately knew this was ethically wrong and that my condition would be made worse and more painful with the stress it would cause.'
But when she raised the matter with the theatre manager and suggested it was inappropriate, she claims she was told: 'But Rose is a woman.'
She was initially given the choice of cancelling her surgery, trying to get it done at another hospital, or allowing Rose to be part of the operation.
But after raising the matter with the Patient Advisory and Liaison Service (PALS), Rose was eventually removed from the operation.
She said: 'I believed this was purely vindictive and demonstrated how low they were prepared to go. Gender identity was placed above patient and staff care.
'They tried to punish me for the legal case I was part of and for opposing gender identity policy within the hospital.'
Decision to go public
Ms Danson said she had decided to go public about her ordeal in order to 'reclaim her voice' and reiterate why she and her colleagues believe the policy is wrong.
The nurses, who are being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, were initially told by hospital bosses they needed to be 're-educated, broaden their mindset and become more inclusive'.
She went on: 'I love my job on the day care unit and making people feel better. I am there to be an emotional support to patients and to help take the pain away.
'I am telling my story now because it feels right. I am aghast at how the Trust has ignored what I have been through and placed gender identity ideology above a woman who has experienced child abuse at the hands of a man.
'Institutions pushing this ideology need to understand what many women are carrying around with them. We cannot 'compromise' or 'be more inclusive.' We shouldn't have to be brave and go through the courts and have our livelihoods threatened.
'I found my voice. It was taken away from me as a child. We are survivors, not victims, and our voices need to be heard to help and inspire other people.
'I would encourage other women, whether you are working in the NHS, the police, or wherever: don't suffer in silence. Don't allow this dangerous ideology to make you believe you have done something wrong. Raise your voice and don't be afraid.'
Bethany Hutchison, a Darlington nurse and president of the Darlington Nursing Union, said: 'How Karen has been treated has been appalling and totally unacceptable. Sadly, however, we are no longer surprised.
'The Trust is prepared to defend a policy that allows men to access female changing rooms, at all costs. Women's dignity and safety has been completely trampled over.'
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: 'Karen's trauma—rooted in childhood abuse—was cruelly reawakened in a place where she should have felt safe: the nurses' changing room.
'The Trust showed not a shred of compassion for her. Instead, they clung to a harmful ideological policy—one that elevated transgender identity over a woman's lived trauma and need for dignity and protection.'
